Many types of information and content are now stored digitally, including books, music, movies, software programs, video games, databases, advertisements, as well as other content. Because such content is stored digitally, it can be transferred easily using many types of electronic networks. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,875,110, 4,412,292, 5,848,398, 6,397,189, 6,381,575, 4,674,055, 5,445,295, 5,734,719, 6,286,029, 6,799,165, 6,655,580, 6,330,490, 6,662,080, 6,535,791, 6,711,464, 5,237,157, 6,654,757, 5,794,217, and 6,748,539, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Both private and public electronic networks, including the Internet, are frequently used to transfer the digital content.
Often the digital content is transferred electronically so that it can be sold to an end user who is not located where the digital content is originally stored. The digital content can be sold for a variety of purposes, including education, entertainment, research, or other purposes. The digital content may be sold in any number of technological formats known in the art that permit storage and retrieval of the digital data, include floppy discs, compact discs of several varieties; video discs of several varieties, including digital video discs; magnetic storage devices using a variety of forms and technologies; and solid state devices of several varieties.
Most of digital content sales have been to users of computers that are connected to each other via networks of various types, e.g., the Internet. But users are not always located at a computer when they desire to purchase the digital content, or they have a computer but it is not connected to a network. Consequently, sales of digital content have begun using devices in remote locations including stand-alone devices (such as kiosks) in retail or other high-traffic areas. The stand-alone devices may be attended or unattended.
In addition to delivering the digital content, the devices in remote locations can also be used to advertise to the user of the remote device. But the advertising capabilities offered at remote locations have been limited for several reasons. First, the advertising has been limited by data transmission speeds to/from the remote device and the storage capabilities of the remote devices. Second, targeted advertising to specific users at remote locations has been limited by the small amount of feedback that can be gathered and used. Even when some feedback is available, the advertising is poorly targeted, increases sales only marginally, and is not cost-effective. The third reason the advertising has been limited is that the user may become frustrated with non-relevant advertisements, causing dissatisfaction and potentially causing the user to abandon the transaction at the remote location. Finally, many remote locations that display advertisements have only offered advertisements without a product, thereby lacking sufficient incentive to attract the user to view the entire advertisement.